Binary code

The word 'Wikipedia' represented in ASCII binary.

Binary code is the system of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system's two-binary digits "0" and "1". A binary string of eight digits (bits), for example, can represent any of 256 possible values and can correspond to a variety of different symbols, letters or instructions. In 8-bit ASCII code the lowercase "a" is represented by the bit string 01100001.

In computing and telecommunication, binary code is used for any of a variety of methods of encoding data, such as character strings, into bit strings. Those methods may be fixed-width or variable-width.

In a fixed-width binary code, each letter, digit, or other character, is represented by a bit string of the same length; that bit string, interpreted as a binary number, is usually displayed in code tables in octal, decimal or hexadecimal notation.

There are many character sets and many character encodings for them.

A bit string, interpreted as a binary number, can be translated into a decimal number.

Early uses of Binary codes

Anton Glaser, in History of Binary and other Nondecimal Numeration. Tomash. 1971. ISBN 0-938228-005., Chapter VII Applications to Computers, cites the following Pre-ENIAC milestones.

• 1932: C.E. Wynn-Williams "Scale of Two" counter
• 1938: Atanasoff-Berry Computer
• 1939: Stibitz: "excess three" code in the Complex Computer

Weight of binary codes

The weight of a binary code, as defined in [1], is the Hamming weight of the binary words coding for the represented words or sequences.

See also

• Binary file
• Hexadecimal
• List of binary codes
• Octal
• Unicode

External links

• Weisstein, Eric W. "Error-Correcting Code". MathWorld.
• Table of general binary codes. An updated version of the tables of bounds for small general binary codes given in M.R. Best, A.E. Brouwer, F.J. MacWilliams, A.M. Odlyzko & N.J.A. Sloane (1978), "Bounds for Binary Codes of Length Less than 25", IEEE Trans. Inf. Th., 24: 81–93{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
• Table of Nonlinear Binary Codes. Maintained by Simon Litsyn, E. M. Rains, and N. J. A. Sloane.